One Hundred Years in Yosemite (1947) by Carl P. Russell

CHAPTER IX

EAST-SIDE MINING EXCITEMENT

Woodcut from the first edition (1931)

Frequently
each summer, those who climb to the Sierra
crest within the Yosemite National Park come upon the
remains of little “cities” near the mountaintops. Because the
story of these deserted towns, now within the boundaries of
the park is so interwoven with the story of Mono mining affairs
in general, this chapter will of necessity take some account of
the events of the Mono Basin, immediately east of Yosemite.

The first white men to visit the Mono country were undoubtedly
the American trappers, followed shortly afterward by the
explorers and immigrants. The first records of mineral finds
in this region, however, are those that pertain to Lieutenant
Tredwell Moore’s Indian-fighting expedition to the Yosemite
in June, 1852 (see p. 46),
which crossed the Sierra at the northern
Mono Pass and brought back samples of gold ore. The
miners who soon followed and, with a few others, continued
to work in the Mono region, were apparently unthought-of by
their former associates west of the Sierra.

John B. Trask, in his report on mines and mining in California,
made to the legislature of California in 1855, says: “In my
report of last year, it was stated that the placer ranges were at
that time known to extend nearly to the summit ridge of the
mountains; but this year it has been ascertained that they pass
beyond the ridge and are now found on the eastern declivity,
having nearly the same altitude as those occurring on the opposite
side. Within the past season, many of these deposits have
been examined, and thus far are found to be equally productive
with those of similar ranges to the west, and, with a
favorable season ensuing, they will be largely occupied.” It is
probable that Trask’s statements were based on reports of the
work done by Lee Vining’s party.

At any rate, in 1857 it became known among the miners
of the Mother Lode that rich deposits had been found at
“Dogtown” and Monoville, and a rush from the Tuolumne
mines resulted. The Mono Trail from Big Oak Flat, through
Tamarack Flat, Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, and Bloody
Canyon, following in general an old Indian route, was blazed
at this time and came into great use. The Sonora Pass route was
used also, and it was over this trail that the discoverer of the
famous Bodie district, later to become the center of all Mono
mining, made his way.

It is not my purpose, however, to write the history of Mono
County, or even to make this a lengthy story of Mono mining
camps. Rather would I present a concise account of the origin
of the relics found by Sierra enthusiasts, and, incidentally, tell
something about the astonishing town of Bodie.

The name Tioga and the beautiful region which its mention
suggests are now familiar to thousands who annually drive
over the route that bisects Yosemite National Park. The original
location of the mineral deposit now known as the Tioga
Mine was made in 1860. Consequently, it is here that our
present chronicle of Yosemite summit events should begin. In
1874, William Brusky, a prospector, came upon a prospect
hole, shovel, pick, and an obliterated notice at this place. The
notice indicated that the mine had been located as “The Sheepherder”
in 1860. It was presumed by Brusky that the original
locators were returning to Mariposa or Tuolumne from Mono
Diggings, Bodie, or Aurora when they made the find. He flattered
the claim by supposing that “the original locators probably
perished, as it is not likely that they would abandon so
promising a claim”; he relocated it as the “Sheepherder.”

In 1878, E. B. Burdick, Samuel Baker, and W J. Bevan organized
the Tioga District. Most of the mines were owned by men
of Sonora, although some Eastern capital was interested. The
district extended from King’s Ranch, at the foot of Bloody
Canyon, over the summit of the Sierra and down the Tuolumne
River to Lembert’s Soda Springs. It was eight miles in extent
from north to south. At one time there were 850 locations in
the district. Bennetville (now called Tioga) was headquarters
for the Great Sierra Mining Company offices, which concern
was operating the old Sheepherder as the “Tioga Mine.”

The company apparently suffered from no lack of funds,
and operations were launched on a grand scale. Great quantities
of supplies and equipment were packed into the camp at
enormous expenditure of labor and money. At first the place
was accessible only via the Bloody Canyon trail, and Mexican
packers contracted to keep their pack animals active on this
spectacular mountain highway. A trail was then built from
the busy camp of Lundy, and that new route to Tioga proved
most valuable. The Homer Mining Index of March 4, 1882,
describes the packing of heavy machinery up 4,000 feet of
mountainside to Tioga in winter:

The transportation of 16,000 pounds of machinery across one
of the highest and most rugged branches of the Sierra Nevada
mountains in mid-winter, where no roads exist, over vast fields and
huge embankments of yielding snow and in the face of furious
wind-storms laden with drifting snow, and the mercury dancing
attendance on zero, is a task calculated to appall the sturdiest
mountaineer; and yet J. C. Kemp, manager of the Great Sierra
Consolidated Silver Company of Tioga, is now engaged in such an
undertaking, and with every prospect of perfect success at an early
day—so complete has been the arrangement of details and so intelligently
directed is every movement. The first ascent, from Mill Creek
to the mouth of Lake Canyon, is 990 feet, almost perpendicular.
From that point to the south end of Lake Oneida, a distance of
about two miles, is a rise of 845 feet, most of it in two hills aggregating
half a mile in distance. The machinery will probably be
hoisted straight up to the summit of Mount Warren ridge from the
southwest shore of Lake Oneida, an almost vertical rise of 2,160
feet. From the summit the descent will be made to Saddlebags Lake,
thence down to and along Lee Vining Creek to the gap or pass in
the dividing ridge between Lee Vining and Slate creeks, and from
that point to Tunnel, a distance of about one mile, is a rise of about
800 feet—most of it in the first quarter of a mile. The machinery
consists of an engine, boiler, air-compressor, Ingersoll drills, iron
pipe, etc., for use in driving the Great Sierra tunnel. It is being
transported on six heavy sleds admirably constructed of hardwood.
Another, or rather, a pair of bobsleds, accompanies the expedition,
the latter being laden with bedding, provisions, cooking utensils,
etc. The heaviest load is 4,200 pounds. Ten or twelve men, two mules,
4,500 feet of one-inch Manila rope, heavy double block and tackle,
and all the available trees along the route are employed in “snaking”
the machinery up the mountain—the whole being under the
immediate supervision of Mr. Kemp, who remains at the front and
personally directs every movement. It is expected that all the sleds
will be got up into Lake Canyon today, and then the work will
be pushed day and night, with two shifts of men. Meantime, the
tunnel is being driven day and night, with three shifts of men under
Jeff McClelland.

Such difficulties prompted the Great Sierra Mining Company
to construct the Tioga Road, that they might bring their
machinery in from the west side of the Sierra. The road was
completed in 1883 at a cost of $64,000.

In 1884, one of those “financial disasters” which always seem
to play a part in mining-camp history overtook the Great Sierra
Mining Company, and all work was dropped. Records show
that $300,000 was expended at Tioga, and there is no evidence
that their ore was ever milled.

Persons who have climbed into that interesting summit region
above Gaylor Lakes have no doubt pondered over the
origin of the picturesque village of long deserted rock cabins
clustered about a deep mine shaft. This is the Mount Dana
Summit Mine, one of the important locations of the Tioga
District. Its owners were determined to operate in winter, as
well as in summer. In the Homer Mining Index, Lundy, of
October 30, 1880, we are told that the superintendent of this
mine visited Lundy and employed skilled miners to spend
the winter there. In December of the same year one of them
descended to Bodie to obtain money with which to pay those
miners. “He got tripped up on Bodie whisky and was drunk
for weeks. Some of the miners returned to Lundy from the
Summit Mine. The distance is but seven miles, but they were
two days making the trip and suffered many hardships.” Later
F. W. Pike took charge of the Summit Mine, but no record
appears to have been handed down of the final demise of
the camp.

Another camp of the main range of the Sierra that received
much notice and actually produced great wealth was Lundy,
situated but a few miles north of Tioga. Prior to 1879, W. J.
Lundy was operating a sawmill at the head of Lundy Lake. His
product helped to supply Bodie’s enormous demand for timber.
In the spring of 1879, William D. Wasson took his family
to Mill Canyon, near Lundy Lake, and engaged in prospecting.
He was followed by C. H. Nye and L. L. Homer, who located
rich veins of ore. J. G. McClinton, of Bodie, investigated and
was persuaded by what he found to bring capital to the new
camp at once. Homer District was organized at Wasson’s residence
at Emigrant Flat, in Mill Creek Canyon, September 15,
1879. Prior to this time the region was included in the Tioga
District, but because the books of the Tioga recorder were kept
at an inconvenient point, a new district was formed. L. L.
Homer, for whom the district was named, bowed down by
“financial troubles,” committed suicide in San Francisco a few
months later.

It is worthy of mention that in 1881 the Sierra Telegraph
Company extended its line from Lundy to Yosemite Valley,
where it made connection with Street’s line to Sonora.

A trail was built from Tioga over the divide from Leevining
Canyon into Lake Canyon, thence down Mill Creek Canyon
to Lundy. In 1881 Archie Leonard, renowned as a Yosemite
guide and ranger, put on a ten-horse saddle train between
Lundy and Yosemite. The trip was made in a day and a half,
and the fare was $8.00 one way.

Reports of the State Mining Bureau indicate that something
like $3,000,000 was taken from the May Lundy Mine. The
town of Lundy proved to be substantial for many years, and
the Homer Mining Index, printed there, is the best of all the
newspapers that were produced in the ephemeral camps of
Mono. Something of the spirit of mining-camp journalism may
be gathered from the following note taken from a December,
1850, number of the Index:

The Index wears a cadaverous aspect this week. It is the unavoidable
result of a concatenation of congruous circumstances. The
boss has gone to Bodie on special business. The devil has been
taking medicine, so that his work at the case has been spasmodic
and jerky. The printing office is open on all sides, and the snow flies
in wherever it pleases. In the morning everything is frozen solid.
Then we thaw things out, and the whole concern is deluged with
drippings. It is hard to set type under such conditions. When the
office is dry, it is too cold to work. When it is warm, the printer
needs gum boots and oilskins. In fact, it has been a hell of a job to
get this paper out.

Like the other camps, Lundy is now defunct. The May
Lundy Mine has not operated for some years, and the building
of a dam has raised Lundy Lake so that a part of the townsite
is submerged.

Another old camp that many Yosemite fishermen and hikers
come upon is the aggregation of dwellings about the “Golden
Crown.” At the very head of Bloody Canyon, within Mono Pass,
are to be found sturdily built log cabins in various stages of
decay. From the Homer Mining Index it has been possible to
glean occasional bits of information regarding this old camp.
It is stated in an 1880 number of the Index that Fuller and
Hayt (or Hoyt) discovered large ledges of antimonial silver
there in 1879. The Mammoth City Herald of September 3,
1879, contains a glowing account of the wealth to be obtained
from the “Golden Crown.” as the mine was christened, and predicts
that thousands of men will be working at the head of
Bloody Canyon within one year. The Mammoth City Herald
of August 27, 1879, under the heading, “Something Besides
Pleasure in Store for Yosemite Tourists.” contains an enthusiastic
letter regarding these prospects.

When one observes the great number of mining claims
staked out throughout the summit region about White Mountain,
Mount Dana, Mount Gibbs, and Kuna Peak, it is not
surprising to learn that some Yosemite Valley businessmen ventured
to engage in the gamble. Albert Snow, proprietor of the
famous La Casa Nevada between Vernal and Nevada falls,
owned a mine in Parker Canyon; and A. G. Black, of Black’s
Hotel, owned the Mary Bee Mine on Mount Dana.

Some twenty miles south of the Tioga District, in a high
situation quite as spectacular in scenic grandeur as any of the
camps of the main range of the Sierra, was Lake District, in
which Mammoth and Pine City flourished for a time—a very
brief time.

In June of 1877, J. A. Parker, B. N. Lowe, B. S. Martin, and
N. D. Smith located mineral deposits on Mineral Hill at an
altitude of 11,000 feet. Lake District was organized here that
same summer. Activity was not great until 1879, when great
riches seemed inevitable, and a rush of miners swelled the population
of Mammoth and Pine City. A mill was built for the
reduction of ores that were not in sight, and two printing establishments
cut each other’s throats, the Mammoth City Herald,
first on the ground, and the Mammoth City Times.

For a time hope was high. J. S. French built a toll trail
from Fresno to Mammoth City. French’s saddle trains met the
Yosemite stages at Fresno Flats, and traveled to Basaw (or
Beasore) Meadows, Little Jackass Meadows, Sheep Crossing,
Cargyle Meadow, Reds Meadow, through Mammoth Pass, and
then to Mammoth City, a distance of fifty-four miles. Livestock
to supply the Mammoth markets was driven from Fresno
Flats over this trail, also.

The first winter after propaganda had inveigled capital to
take a chance on Mammoth, all activities persisted through
the winter. Like those hardy men who suffered the hardships
of winter on Mount Dana, the inhabitants of Mammoth contended
with great difficulties.

After the winter of 1879-80, it became apparent that the
Mammoth enterprise was unwarranted. The mill, constructed
with such optimism, was poorly built. Had it been mechanically
perfect, the fate of the camp would have been no better,
for the expected ore was not forthcoming. Mammoth was
another of those camps which engulfed capital and produced
little or nothing. In the winter of 1880-81 the place closed.

Benton, Bodie, and Aurora are quite removed from the area
likely to be reached by Sierra travelers, yet to close this account
without some mention of their birth, growth, and death would
be to omit some of the most important affairs of Mono mining.
The first settlement in the region immediately south of
Mono was made by George W. Parker, who located the Adobe
Meadows in 1860. In 1861 E. C. Kelty sent “Black” Taylor, a
partner of the discoverer of Bodie District, to winter some
cattle in Hot Springs Valley, where he was killed by Indians.
William McBride entered the region in 1853 and engaged in
ranching. Float rock was found in October, 1863, by Robinson
and Stuart in the foothills of the White Mountains, east of
Benton. In February, 1864, these men organized the Montgomery
District and succeeded in attracting some attention to their
find. The region flourished for a season, but soon declined and
became deserted. A few very rich deposits existed, but there
seem to have been no continuous veins.

“Cherokee Joe” found lead ore in a long, low granite hill,
which rises abruptly out of the valley west of the White Range,
and it was here that Benton started in 1865. James Larne built
the first house, and soon the camp became quite populous.
Like the others, it attracted a printer, and for a time the Mono
Weekly Messenger flaunted taunts at neighboring camps and
exploited the virtues and possibilities of Benton. Like the
others, too, the camp failed, and the printer moved, this time
to Mammoth, where he founded the short-lived Mammoth
City Herald.

When, in the late ’seventies, the turbulent town of Bodie
was attaining its reputation as a tough place, a newspaper of
Truckee, California, quoted the small daughter in a Bodie-bound
family as having offered the following prayer: “Good-by,
God! I’m going to Bodie.” An editor of one of the several Bodie
papers rejoined that the little girl had been misquoted. What
she really said was, “Good, by God! I’m going to Bodie.”

According to accounts printed when excitement at Bodie
was high, the discoverer of the Bodie wealth, W. S. Body, came
to California on the sloop Matthew Vassar in 1878. He had
lived in Poughkeepsie, New York, and there left a wife and six
children. In November, 1859, Body, Garraty, Doyle, Taylor,
and Brodigan crossed Sonora Pass to test the Mono possibilities.
On their way back to the west side of the mountains, they
dug into placer ground in a gulch on the east side of Silver Hill,
one of those now pock-marked hills just above Bodie.

The partners apparently remained on the ground and
equipped themselves to work their claims. In March, 1860,
Body and “Black” Taylor went to Monoville for supplies, and
en route were overtaken by a severe snow-storm. Body became
exhausted, and Taylor attempted to carry him but was forced
to wrap a blanket around him and leave him. Taylor returned
to their cabin, obtained food, and then wandered about all
night in a vain search for his companion. It was not until May
that Body’s body was found, when it was buried on the west
side of the black ridge southwest of the present town. Taylor’s
fate has already been mentioned.

Other miners came into the vicinity, and at a meeting, with
E. Green presiding, “Body Mining District” was organized.
Subsequent usage changed “Body” to “Bodie.” In the summer
of 1860, prospectors located lodes a few miles north of Bodie
that were destined to put the Bodie find “in the shade” for
some years to come. This was the Aurora discovery, upon which
the Esmeralda District, organized in 1860, centered. Aurora
forged ahead and became a wildly excited camp, but its bloody
career was little more than a drunken orgy. The rich ores which
had induced extravagance and wild speculation disappeared
when shafts had been sunk about one hundred feet, and the
“excitement” came to a sudden end.

It is worthy of note that the first board of county supervisors
of the county of Mono met in Aurora, June 13, 1861. By 1864
it was discovered that the camp was some miles within the state
of Nevada; so Bridgeport was named the county seat. Just before
the move was made, a substantial courthouse had been
built in Aurora, and the old building still stands. E. A. Silerman,
first editor of the Esmeralda Star of Aurora, journeyed
to the Eastern States prior to 1863-64, and took with him a
fifty-pound specimen of rich Aurora ore. This chunk of rock
had been sold and resold at mining-camp auctions to swell
the Sanitary Fund, the Civil War “Red Cross.” Thousands of
dollars were added to the fund by this one specimen, just as
had been done through repeated sale of the celebrated Austin
(Nevada) sack of flour.

Mr. Sherman met Mr. Davis of the Pilgrim Society in
Plymouth, Massachusetts, and exchanged the Aurora ore for
a piece of Plymouth Rock. This fragment of Plymouth Rock
was brought back to Aurora, and when the Mono County courthouse
was built there, the Plymouth Rock fragment was placed
in the cornerstone. The fifty-pound chunk of Aurora ore still
may be seen in the Plymouth Society’s venerable museum.

Mark Twain at one time resided in Aurora and engaged
in his humorous exaggerations. His cabin there, which even
in 1878, when Wasson wrote his Bodie and Esmeralda, had
become somewhat mythical, was recently located and moved
to Reno, Nevada, where it is now exhibited. At any rate, an
Aurora cabin was found which might have been occupied by
Mark Twain. One part of the original Mark Twain cabin certainly
did not reach Reno, according to the Mammoth Times
of December 6, 1879. Bob Howland, who had lived with Mark
Twain in Aurora, returned to their old domicile in 1879 and
took down the flagpole. He had it made into canes, which he
distributed among his friends.

The truly important activity in the Esmeralda region
prompted the building of the Sonora Pass wagon road. The
Mono County supervisors ordered that road bonds on the
“Sonora and Mono road” be issued on November 5, 1863.
The road was projected in 1864 and opened to travel in 18681[
1A road of sorts crossed Sonora Pass prior to this construction work. Hittell
[Editor’s note: The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter, of California—dea]
(1911, p. 218) tells of Grizzly Adams’s trip through the pass with a wagon in the
spring of 1851.
]

Bodie, in the meantime, had not given up the ghost, although
only a comparatively few miners occupied the camp.
From its discovery until 1877 an average of twenty votes were
polled each year. In 1878, however, the Bodie Mining Company
made a phenomenally rich strike of gold and silver ore,
and the entire mining world was startled. Stock jumped from
fifty cents to fifty-four dollars a share. The news swept all
Western camps like wildfire, and by 1879 Bodie’s crowd and
reputation were such that the little girl’s prayer of “Good-by,
God! I’m going to Bodie” was representative of the opinion
held by contemporaries.

Even W. S. Body, whose body had moldered in a rocky grave
for nearly twenty years, was not undisturbed by the activity.
In 1871 J. G. McClinton had discovered the forgotten Body
grave while searching for a horse. He made no move to change
the burial site, however, until some one of Bodie’s several
newspapers launched erroneous reports of the whereabouts of
Body’s remains. In the fall of 1879 McClinton and Joseph
Wasson exhumed the skeleton, exhibited it to Bodie’s motley
populace, and then gave it an elaborate burial, not excluding
an eloquent address by Hon. R. D. Ferguson. Now these honored
bones occupy a grave that is quite as neglected as the sage-grown
niche in which they originally rested, but at least they
share a place with the other several hundred dead disposed of
in Bodie’s forgotten cemetery.

To make Bodie’s story short, let it suffice to say that for four
years the camp maintained the same high-pressure activity.
Men mined, milled, played, fought, and hundreds died. Some
fifty companies tunneled into Bodie Bluff and all but turned
it inside out. Probably twenty-five millions in bullion were
conveyed in Bodie stage coaches to the railroad at Carson City,
Nevada. Perhaps an amount almost as great was sunk into the
hills by the numerous companies that carried on frenzied activity
but produced no wealth. Only the Standard and the Bodie
had proved to be immensely profitable, and in 1881 the stock
market went to pieces. Bodie’s mines, one after another, closed
down. In 1887 the Standard and the Bodie consolidated and
operated sanely and profitably for some twenty years longer.
But the camp’s mad days of wild speculation and excessive
living were done. Gradually activities ceased, and a few years
ago the picturesque blocks of frame buildings were consumed
by flames. To meet the opportunities of 1941 some several hundred
people occupied Bodie to salvage minerals from her old
mine dumps. But there was little progress in rebuilding the
town. It is interesting to note, however, that the Bodie Miners’
Union Hall of the ’seventies still stands. Within it Mr. and Mrs.
D. V. Cain have exhibited the relics of Bodie’s boom days.